Help me decide on aluminum/carbon tradeoffs

On Sep 16, 3:07*am, wrote:
I am looking at buying either the 2008 or 2009 Specialized Roubaix.
2008 has carbon fork, rear stays, and seat tube. *2009 is all carbon.
I can get 2008 for about $1400. *I can get 2009 for about $1800. *$400
extra for the all-carbon frame.

I'm a pretty casual rider. *No racing. *Usually do 20-30 mile rides
2-3 times/week during the summer months. *All told, no more than 1000
miles/year.

$1800 seems like a LOT of money for a bike. *Well so does $1400, but
my cheaper alternative is the $1250 Trek 2.1 which has Tiagra
components. *Friend talked me into a 105-class bike and the Roubaix
feels good.

Any thoughts if I would be foolish not to eak out the extra $400 for
an all-carbon bike? *I'm sure the carbon makes a difference for 50-
mile rides, but I'd maybe do one of two of those a year.

I currently ride an aluminum bike w/ steel fork. *Frame doesn't quite
fit right and RSX STI shifter is worn out.

I don't ride a road bike, and I have little experience of carbon, so I
don't have a technical contribution.

But I'll say this, if you have even a mild suspicion the all-carbon
bike is better, or cooler, or will make you look more technical to
other cyclists on the road, spend the 400 bucks extra even if you're
not convinced it is worth quite that much. If you don't, you'll
agonize over it for a year or two, and then buy a new all-carbon bike
anyway.

I had an experience like this. In 2004 I was shopping for a new bike
and finally decided on a Dutch city bike type with internal hub-gears,
and I isolated the Nexus from Shimano as being the most suitable for
my circumstances (out here on the edge of the bicycle world I would
have to do the maintenance myself). What I really wanted was the
hightech all electronic automatic Cyber Nexus but I cautiously bought
the mechanical plain Nexus, because it would be more practical. I was
very happy with the bike superb Gazelle Toulouse I bought but just
about every week I checked the dwindling supply of Cyber Nexus
bikes... Less than two years after buying a perfectly good bike, I
bought the Cyber Nexus anyway. I don't really ride enough (about three
times as much as you over the whole year) to own two expensive bikes,
but I'm delirously happy anyway.

That I made the right decision was confirmed recently. I was shopping
for another bike -- not because I need it but because I read RBT where
there is always inspiration -- and after looking at a stainless custom
frame, a Pedersen, a custom lugged steel frame with Rohloff gears,
several designs of my own, and so on, just something *different*, I
couldn't actually see that any other bike would be worth the effort of
getting it here... The impetus-killer was that I would probably have
to sell or give away one of my current bikes to make space for the new
bike.

Reasonably, I concluded from this that I should just have bought the
bike I really wanted, the Cyber Nexus, in the first instance, and
bugger the rational considerations of its longevity, service, etc,
all of which have anyway proved to be irrelevant in nearly 3000km. As
it happened, after I negotiated a stunning deal, the Cyber Nexus
landed at my door was only about 400 dollars more expensive than the
standard job, the same amount you're asking us to consider.

So, I would say that, if you can make the two bikes fit you equally
well, buy the one you are convinced is superior for whatever reason as
long as it a reason you believe in, regardless of whether you can
justify the price difference to a convention of bean counters. They
won't be riding the bike three times a week: you will. And you don't
ride only the mechanics, you also ride the satisfaction of the right
choice for you.

Andre Jute
Isn't bike shopping with someone else's money fun?